The present invention relates to a method for producing a tubular knitted article, particularly a hosiery article, closed at one end, without a seam, with a circular machine.
As is known, tubular articles, particularly hosiery articles, according to conventional production methods are generally manufactured by using circular machines and have both ends open when they are unloaded from the machine that forms them. Such articles must therefore undergo subsequent sewing or looping, which closes one end thereof, constituted by the toe for hosiery articles, in order to obtain the finished product.
Since this operation of closing one end of the article is an additional production step that requires time and the use of labor, with the associated costs, methods aimed at closing one end of the article directly on the manufacturing machine, or aimed at automating the transfer of the article from the production machine to a looping or sewing machine, so as to achieve a reduction in the overall production costs of the articles, have been devised and optimized in recent years.
These methods are generally used with satisfactory results on low-gauge articles.
In the field of production of high-gauge articles, such as for example women""s stockings, a method is known which is disclosed in Italian patent no. 832,312 and allows to produce, with a circular hosiery knitting machine, tubular articles, particularly hosiery articles, which are closed at one end without a seam. The method consists in inserting, in the production of the end portion meant to be closed of each article, a closure thread, looping it for a first portion, weaving it in for a few turns or portions of turn of the needle cylinder of the machine and then looping it again in the end portion. This thread is then pulled so as to gather the loops with which it has been woven into a very small circle, which closes the affected end of the article, and is then fixed in order to keep the article closed.
Although this method allows to obtain tubular articles, particularly hosiery articles, including high-gauge articles, which are closed at one end, it has the drawback that it produces articles that have, at the loops gathered to close the article, wrinkles which in the case of hosiery articles can be uncomfortable for the user and can produce an article that is not fully satisfactory from an aesthetic standpoint.
The aim of the present invention is to solve the problem noted above, by providing a method that allows to produce, with a circular machine, a tubular knitted article, particularly a hosiery article, which is closed at one end and is fully satisfactory as regards comfort and the aesthetic aspect.
Within the scope of this aim, an object of the invention is to provide a method that allows to produce a tubular knitted article, particularly a hosiery article, including high-gauge articles, which is closed at one end directly during its manufacture and therefore does not require subsequent sewing operations to obtain the finished product.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method that can be performed with currently commercially available circular hosiery knitting machines on the basis of a preset program for the actuation of the machine.
This aim and these and other objects that will become better apparent hereinafter are achieved by a.method for producing a tubular knitted article, particularly a hosiery article, which is closed at one end, without a seam, with a circular machine, characterized in that it comprises:
a first step, in which the knitting of the article is started from the end to be closed, forming a knot for retaining a closure thread by means of a set of contiguous needles;
a second step, in which said closure thread is included in the weave, feeding it to a preset number of needles so that it mutually connects needles that are arranged opposite with respect to an imaginary central plane that passes through the axis of the needle cylinder of the machine and through a central region of said set of contiguous needles;
a third step, in which the feeding of said closure thread to the needles of the machine is interrupted;
a fourth step, in which a few rows of knitting are formed by using another thread or threads and at least part of the needles of the machine;
a fifth step, in which traction is applied to said closure thread in order to close the initial end of the article;
a sixth step, in which the production of the article is completed.